Aspects of the present invention are directed to a silicon chicklet pedestal and, more particularly, to a silicon chicklet pedestal for use in a wafer-level test probe.
Normally, for high-power and high-performance wafer-level tests, probes are employed to assess, among other things, operation conditions of the wafer being tested. Conventional probes include a ceramic pedestal substrate within the test hardware. Unfortunately, ceramic pedestal substrates are relatively expensive and may require a 9-12 month order lead time. Also, due to the limitations of ceramic processing at small pad size on tighter pitch, as wafer pitches shrink, ceramic pedestal substrates will not be able to maintain substrate top metallurgy registration accuracy and, as such, it is seen that conventional probes including ceramic pedestal substrates are not reliable for wafers having test pitches of less than 200 μm.
As an additional matter, is has been seen that organic substrates generally provide for more accurate footprint registration at tighter pitch. With this in mind, it has further been seen that the use of silicon, as opposed to ceramics, in the pedestal enables the creation of a pedestal on an organic substrate.